Seven years ago today I began this blog. I wasn’t sure what I would say or where it would go. I had been using on-line journals for a while, but they were private and within gated communities, so I decided to go public.

It’s emphasis has changed, developed, lapsed, changed hosts, obtained a proper url and so on. It hasn’t always received the attention it should from both myself, and the odd time I have written something quite interesting, from others.

But it is my blog, it is personal and as such does meander through the virtual landscape. I don’t have any grand plans for this space, the grand plans are for other sites I run and keep going.

So happy birthday to ‘an insignificant opinion’, long may it continue to offer a thought among the many.

I’m not very good at predicting things. I have never won the lottery, or successfully won a bet on a major sporting event. I constantly fail to identify the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest and even under-estimate how long most car journey’s will take.

However, I have decided to take a stab at making some predictions for 2011. This blog focuses on three main areas.

Publishing – this is what I do, so I take an interest and make the odd comment

Digital – this is how I do the above, but I also have an interest in the technology too

Divine – this is where I think beyond what I do and know, a little subjective spirituality

So the next three posts, unless any bookmarks pop up, will be my predictions for 2011 in those three areas. And when I say predictions you could read premonitions or even thoughts… but just in case, remember where you heard it first.

Bloggers are supposed to have a voice. It’s a kind of unwritten rule. You have a blog and you should post to it in a certain style with a certain language. And I’ve been wondering, what is my voice?

There are two options:

Be yourself

Adopt a persona

This is a personal blog, so the solution is quite simple. I need to be myself. But that is also the problem. Is my voice the current me or the me I want, and strive, to be?

It’s a question of authenticity, as much as identity. And that’s the answer. I should post as myself, and as myself now. If I do something wrong, or slip up then that shows what sort of person I am, the real me. There’s nothing wrong with aspiring to improve or to be a better person. In fact that forms a central premise of my existence as I follow my spiritual call.

But I am also just like everyone else. I am a work in progress. I am sarcastic, I am irreverent, I am emotional, I am… I am…

Hopefully the positives outweigh the negatives, we’ll see.

I tie myself up in thoughts like this but then I’m not the first. So perhaps it is time for a musical interlude. Here are the Pet Shop Boys making the point that they (me) are a collection of personas in their song Too Many people.

Well of course that isn’t true. As soon as it is time to write something specific, for a worthwhile cause (see previous post), the ideas completely dry up. A little lubrication via the drink department of ASDA seems to have little effect on sparking ideas. If I had a South American Tree Frog I may be able to induce some creativity via its hallucinogenic back sweat, but I am, as are ASDA, completely out of the inspirational amphibian. Likewise the only mushrooms in the house are closed cap and penciled in for tomorrow’s dinner, I will have to look elsewhere for inspiration.

This is the universal bind of all bloggers, what exactly to write. Blogging is not for the shy, the belief that someone else, in the world is at least half interested in what you have to say, means that you don’t mind telling them. It also means that someone else in the world is interested in the trivial things that make up your life, or the fantasy stories that make up your life, either way, interest is assumed… or at least hoped for.

The other option would be to write something of an opinionated nature, a sort of Daily Mail for the MTV generation. This is all well and good, but far too often any irony intended is lost on the comment whores who stalk looking for things they either agree or disagree with. So perhaps in the end, all that I am left with is a snapshot of my life, Darren, some guy who has a blog. Well here goes…

Today I woke up, I lived a little, and soon I will go to sleep. See you tomorrow.

Is this the beginning of something new?Is this a return to ancient ways?

Actually it is a little of both.

‘Darren’s Diary’ is being renamed ‘Cold Tea Again’. My other blogger blog, Cold Tea Again, will no longer be updated. However, I will be pulling in all the posts from that blog into this one. I will also be stopping Roundacow, and pulling those posts into this blog too.

Therefore, I will have ‘one blog to rule them all’.

However, as I still sign up for every Web 2.0 site that is out there and have plenty of paid for web space too, this isn’t the only place you’ll find me.